Do you wish you could find that certain vintage something without going through all your bookmarks? Have you ever wanted to comparison shop vintage items on a gallery page?
Now—I’m frankly stunned to report—you can. GEM is a vintage search engine, available via website and app. I first heard of GEM in June of this year, so I guess one could say it’s fairly new.
Let’s give it a test drive together, shall we?
A lot of people say they can’t find vintage in larger sizes, so let’s try a search for 1940s dresses in size XL.
Today you can see:
There are some nice looking frocks! I like having the price right there. Of course you know you still have to click through and look at the garment’s measurements to compare these to what you need for a good fit, look at the condition, and consider the seller’s terms of sale. But what a fine start!
Next let’s try searching for something more specific, say, Enid Collins bags with owls:
Boom!
If you are looking for something more general, like a green prom dress, the choices are going to give you a lot to go through:
I’m not going to tell you all my favorite searches, the ones I’ve kept track of for years, but I’ll tell you one: Claire McCardell dresses. I don’t need to buy one right now, but I always want to look at everything McCardell designed. This gives me the chills, seeing what’s available in one place:
They also have some solid posts, what they call Stories, on the site, such as vintage shopping guides to various cities, profiles of vintage wearers/collectors, vintage clothing care, vintage wearing trends, and vintage designers. I’m writing them rather than it because GEM is a creation of Liisa Jokinen and Sampo Karjalainen, a Finnish-born couple based in New York City. Bravo te kaksi!
Give GEM a try yourself, and see what you think…and let me know!
I’m not beholden to GEM, except in that my denisebrain finery can be found on the search engine. If you are a seller with a stand-alone website, be sure you are being found on GEM. You don’t want to miss being part of this compilation.